If you’re looking to grow your business by actively participating in events and fundraisers, here is some good information to help you find leads.

Craigslist.org

A great source of information about upcoming events. Navigate to your chosen geography, then search for events in your specific area or chosen time frame. Many will indicate that they are accepting vendors.

Community/Local, County, State Fairs

Fairs nearly always have vendor booths. Research online for fairs in your area. Most will have a website that includes information for vendors or exhibitors.

Community events such as “Music in the Park,” Farmers Markers, or other regularly scheduled events (often in the spring/summer/fall) may provide opportunity for vendors. Check with your local community, community association, home owners association, etc. for possible opportunities.

Chamber of Commerce

Check out your local chamber. They may have leads on local events that are accepting small business participation.

Holiday Events

Christmas Bazaar, Easter Eggstravaganza, St. Patrick’s Day Party… you get the idea. Do a little online research to see if there are upcoming events scheduled in your area for a particular holiday, that will include vendor booths.

Running Events

Running events include 5K, 10K, 1/2 or full marathons, fun runs, and often include a vendor expo. Running events can be found all year, all over. Check online for running events in your area. The larger the event, the greater the likelihood of a large vendor expo.

Newspaper

It’s a bit old school, but the newspaper is still a great source for getting information on upcoming events in your area. Events can usually be found in the local section of the newspaper.

College/Community Career Fairs

Colleges often hold career or business fairs, for their students. If you are looking for building a team, this may be a channel to get team member leads. Check with your local colleges or universities for information on participation.

News Channel Websites

Local news stations all have websites that include local events and happenings. Check for any that might be accepting vendor or exhibitor booths.

Bridal Shows

Bridal shows are great for many other direct sales brands. Research online for bridal shows in your area, and contact the event organization for whether they already have your brand’s representation.

Facebook

If you are on Facebook, seek out neighborhood, school, church, and community groups you can join. They will often hold fundraising events, boutiques, fairs, and will actively seek vendors on their Facebook page. You can also just generally advertise on these pages.

Trailer and Mobile Home Parks

Who would have thought…! Trailer parks are often big areas for vendor shows and craft fairs. Research “mobile home craft fair” in your area. You may need to dig a little, but you’ll find good information – especially if you’re in the snowbird belt of the southwest or southeast.

Schools

Most schools have PTO/PTA or booster clubs (music, athletics, cheer, etc.) that are always looking to raise money for school events and activities. Some also have craft and vendor fairs (often around the holidays). Contact the school to get a contact name of anyone managing fundraising events. A direct sales fundraiser would be so much easier (and fun) than a car wash!

Churches

Like schools, churches are always looking to raise money to support their congregation or charitable causes. Whether it’s a craft fair, a Chili-Cookoff, or community outreach, contact the church and ask to speak to the person who organized the fundraising efforts. You may be able to put up a booth or table at an upcoming event, if you donate a portion of your retail sales to the church.

Malls

Malls are always looking for ways to bring in shoppers, and may offer Home-Based Business Expos. These types of events are often setup in the mall’s center court, and can attract a lot of foot traffic in a short period of time. Check the mall’s website to get a name of the management contact that you can contact, or check for upcoming scheduled events at that mall.

Non-Profit Organizations

YMCA, YWCA, Rotary, Lions Club, Kiwanis, Elk, Shriners, etc. all have a purpose of raising funds and awareness for their causes. Contact your local organizations to see if they offer any type of vendor or exhibitor events that you can either buy-in to, or offer as a fundraiser based on the event’s retail sales.

Humane Societies

Like other non-profit organizations, humane societies are always in need of additional contributions. Many hold events such as “Bark in the Park” or “Wag and Walk” to raise funds for their organization. Contact your local organization to see if there are any scheduled events for which they are accepting vendors, and their booth requirements.

Sororities

Most national sororities are required to do a philanthropy every semester that supports their national organization. Offering an direct sales fundraiser where the sorority will earn a percentage of retail sales, is a fun and easy way to raise money that requires little investment from the active chapter. Check for Greek Life at your local university to find what sororities are on campus, or contact the campus’s Greek Life office. then find their website. The chapter’s officers will often be listed online.

And if you still can’t find an event, make your own! Create a Boutique/Open House in your own home (or location of your choosing). Seek out a few other non-competitive direct brand vendors, and offer a “Home Based Businesses and Artisans” event. If you offer snacks and beverages, each vendor should “buy-in” to the event, or be prepared to offer a raffle prize. Advertise your event on Craigslist, Facebook neighborhood groups, email, etc. to drive traffic to your event.

I personally find events to be more lucrative than home parties. People who attend events come for the same purpose that you’re there, to connect people of similar interests or purpose. Events are fairly easy to find if you’re willing to make the effort to find them, and make the financial investment in booth rental or donation of your retail sales. Most events will require a fee or donation. You will need to decide the financial breakeven point for whether an event is a good investment, based on the traffic you expect to get. Events are all about lead generation, exposing your brand to a new market, and getting party and team member leads. The money is truly in the follow-up.

When you inquire on any event opportunity, be sure to request exclusivity! A word about the golden rule. Not all events and fundraisers will formally offer exclusivity (especially smaller, more informal events). Exclusivity is when the first vendor of any brand, has the exclusive rights to sell at that event. If you are representing a company and another consultant has already booked an event that is not offering exclusivity, it will hurt you both if you choose to also participate. The golden rule – do unto others – should rule the day.

Remember – this is your business. The events won’t come to you – you have to find them! And sometimes creativity is key. My daughter’s preschool is classified as a non-profit organization. The school administrator had no idea that she could do a fundraiser event for her school. So we setup an direct sales fundraiser for three time slots on the chosen day, to maximize walk-in traffic from parents dropping off their children – morning, noon, after work. Her school got nearly $200, and I got access to a whole new group of potential customers and future team members.

Now what to do with all these old catalogs… If you’re a consultant who, like me, has extra catalogs from the spring, these are still very valuable! Just because they are outdated, you can still use them. Put your contact information sticker on the back, and in big bold marker, write “This one is old, but here’s what to do. Call me today, and I’ll show you what’s new!” Then, leave them anywhere there is a waiting room or people congregate, or anywhere you typically see people reading magazines: doctor offices, dentist offices, hair or nail salons, or even company break rooms or cafeterias. Don’t leave your business card; they are too small and will get lost. But people may browse the catalog, or even take it home with them. This will expand your reach, and hit a market that is likely within your target demographic. Let those old catalogs work for you!

Your launch is an exciting time, and is when you will officially introduce your business to your friends and family. The goal of your launch isn’t necessarily sales, it’s generating interest, leads, and future bookings. So don’t worry if you don’t sell a lot! This would actually be prohibitive to those people booking a future party with you. Your launch is all about preparation!

Planning your Launch:

Many people use a 3-2-2 format.

Clean your house once, setup your display once.

Hold 3 parties, over 2 days, 2 hours each.

For example – Friday 5-7pm, Saturday 11-1pm and 6-8pm.

This allows you to catch a variety of times that people might be available, and overcome schedule objections.

It is also a “safe” way to introduce the product, on your very own turf.

Planning Your Invitations:

Invite everyone you know, using the FRANK method:

Friends

Relatives

Associates (co-workers)

Neighbors

Kids’ contacts

Try to use a variety of invitation methods. Because of the personal nature of the product, you want to use personal invitations as much as possible.

Email

Text

Phone

Paper/mailed

Evite.com

Facebook

Try to avoid the “spray and pray” method of invitations, which is spray it out to everyone, and pray that someone accepts. Because we all receive so many Facebook invitations, most are ignored. Facebook should not be your primary invitation method.

After initial invitations go out, follow-up with everyone you invited!

A week in advance

A day before

Suggested Wording for Your Invitations:

“Hello! As you may have heard, I have started an exciting new business venture as consultant with …! (Give a quick description of your product line.) The product has touched me, and I wanted to be a part of it.

I will be launching my business this weekend [dates], with a party in my home. It’s a great way to get hands-on and see what it’s all about. Please choose one of the following dates, and let me know if you can stop by!

Date 1:

Date 2:

Date 3:

Feel free to also browse the following links, to learn more about my business!

Shop Online: [replicated website/shop]

LIKE my Facebook page: [insert FB link]

FOLLOW me on Pinterest: [insert Pinterest link]

Thank you so much for supporting me and my business. I look forward to seeing you at one of my launch parties!”

Closing Your Launch Party:

If you will be holding your launch party with only your starter kit, you will place orders online for anything customers order at your launch. Try to place orders within 24 hours.

Stack your orders. Send the customer their tracking number once you see that the orders have shipped.

Send each guest who attended your Launch a personal note, even if they didn’t purchase or book. They supported your business, and may be a future customer or hostess!

Be sure to follow-up with any hostess leads within 24 hours, to get a date on the calendar.

Relax and treat yourself to something pretty with your first commission check!

Finally…

Launch parties are entirely optional. If you want to jump straight into hosted parties, that’s great! These are just a casual way to generate interest and get booking leads. If you already have them, you’re ahead of the curve.

Be sure to let your mentor when you have your launch scheduled, so she can be on standby for any questions!

One of the perks (of the many perks) of being self-employed, is that as long as there is Wifi, I can work from anywhere. And this weekend, I’m working from the beach in Mexico, with my husband and kids. And this is my perfect view. My kids are in and out of the water, and attempting to build the “world’s biggest sand castle”. With only two small buckets, I think it’s going to be more along the lines of a single-story… but that’s OK. They’re having a great time, and I can still relax, listen to the amazing sounds of the ocean, and keep up with my team on email and Facebook. What a perfect life… all because 7 months ago, I took a leap of faith and joined a fairly unheard of new direct sales company.

Are you a Pinner? If you are, you’re most likely a casual pinner, finding great new recipes, kids craft ideas, and inspiration for your future home decor. But Pinterest is so much more. With an audience that is 80% female, Pinterest has become one of the hottest and most influential social media sites for marketers. Pinterest has a higher revenue-per-click than both Facebook and Twitter, and 70% of people say they go to Pinterest to get inspiration and ideas on what to buy (compared to only 17% going to Facebook). Pinterest is potentially the most influential social media platform to affect your business. Let’s get you using it!

Pinterest is a pinboard-style website, that allows users to create and manage theme-based “boards” on any topic of choice, such as events, hobbies, or interests. Users can browse other boards for images, “re-pin” images to their own boards, and like or comment on other photos or pins. And what’s most important to any business marketer, is that the user can direct the source of the pin. I’ll explain this more shortly. Once you setup your account, you want to be strategic in how you’re going to get your product in front of your target demographic of customer.

Setup your boards. Create boards thoughtfully and strategically, in an organized way that allows the person browsing your boards to see the flow of pins. Having too many pins jumbled together is disorganized and distracting.

Find people to follow. One of the ways you’ll get more exposure, is by following the right people. You want to be following those who have a similar customer demographic, and have >1000 followers.

Pin. Find great pins (either by browsing the Pinterest categories, searching for a specific topic, or uploading your own content) and pin to the boards you setup. Make sure your pins include robust descriptions, including #hashtags, as these will be searchable on Pinterest.

Confirm the source URL. When you edit a pin, you can direct where that pin points. If you re-pinned a great image from a competitor consultant, change the URL director to your own page (assuming the image is not watermarked with someone else’s contact information).

Use Pinterest for your parties. Create boards for your hostesses to pin ideas and recipes to, or pictures of your party guests and their new products.

Comment on other pinners’ pins. When you do this, you are exposing your comment to all of their followers. (That’s why you want to follow people with large follower counts.)

Setup a Pinterest tab on your Facebook page using a Woobox fanpage app, and invite your Facebook fans to follow you on Pinterest.

Promote specific boards or pins on Facebook, and encourage your Facebook fans to become Pinterest followers.

Use contributor boards. These are boards that are allow you to create community, by inviting others to pin on your boards. What a great way to engage with your fans, team, customers, and followers. Additionally, when you choose to “follow all boards” on your contributors accounts, they automatically follow all your boards too, increasing your reach.

Let your Pinterest boards show your personality. I am a business person, wife, mother, and hobbyist. My boards reflect the varieties of my life. I like that my hostesses, team, and customers can see all the things I’m interested in, as it makes me more personable.

Are you interested in getting started on Pinterest? Checkout this video to give you the basics!

If you are a consultant for any direct sales brand, you should be thinking about your social media strategy. Your social media strategy will include all the things that you do online to engage your fans, promote your products, recruit future team members, and attract new customers. Many people think that having a Facebook fan page is their social media strategy… but it is so much more than that. If you answer NO to any of the following questions, you need to think more about how social media will be part of your overall business plan. Since most people start their direct sales business with the intention of engaging customers and team members, leveraging social media is one of the easiest and most consistent ways to do that.

Have you defined your personal brand, and secured the appropriate naming rights for your social media sites, domain, and email?

Do you have a personal website where you can display your personal brand, original content and writing, and direct traffic to your other sites?

Are you leveraging all functions of Facebook for your fan page, including checking in, creating interest and custom lists, engaging locally, and providing stimulating content that will create fan engagement?

Are you consistently posting to Facebook at the optimal times to reach the greatest audience, but not so much as to be annoying?

Are you using Twitter, and automatically pushing your Facebook statuses, as well as using Twitter to source for new customers and engagement?

Are you actively using Pinterest and cross-promoting your products with URL directors to either your Facebook page or business web site?

Are you using Google+ or any other video conferencing technologies, to engage directly with customers, fans, or team members?

Do you have a YouTube channel, where you can publish your own original video content?

Are you on Instagram (or Flickr or other photo sharing sites), and consistently engaging fans with new product images?

Are you creating your own original content and graphics, or just sharing other people’s content?

If someone searches for your brand and city/state on Google, will they find you on page 1?

You’ve probably already noticed that those that are most successful, are highly visible online. You want to be sure that you can also stand out from others in your brand. Your overall strategy will include not only setting your business goals, but also your social media goals, and developing an integrated plan that incorporates a timeline to do that. Social media strategy is an important and integral part of the training that I offer to my team, so YOU can get found online. Even if you are not tech savvy today, or the list above makes you completely anxious, baby steps on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest will improve your ability to be found locally in your brand, engage new customers and team members, and grow your business.

If you know people in direct sales businesses, you’ve probably heard one or more of the following comments at one time or another.

“If I knew what kind of mentor (or sponsor, recruiter, etc.) ______ would be, I probably wouldn’t have joined her team. She never calls me! I basically had to train myself. I can’t believe she makes commission on me. She certainly didn’t earn it.”

“I really wish I was on _____’s team. They seem so collaborative, and she really seems to care about their success.”

“I have the best mentor! She was recommended by a friend, and wow – she’s amazing. I’ve learned so much from her, and it’s really made me better in my own business.”

Do any of these sound familiar? Which statement would you rather be making? Choosing a mentor is one of the most important decisions that will affect your business success.

Will train and coach you during the startup of your business, including coaching on the ordering and payment process, and the company’s processes, policies, and procedures.

Understands the direct sales lineage, and will help you understand the downline reasons for joining the team.

Will encourage your participation in corporate training events and webinars.

Will be available to you and answer your questions when they come up.

A great mentor…

Understands not only your company, but also understands the direct sales business model and various marketing strategies for maximizing customers contacts and lead generation, within the policies established by your direct sales company.

Will help you understand and source events and fundraisers, and coach you on these lucrative potential sales channels.

Fosters an environment of teamwork and collaboration with her other team members.

Coaches you on how to leverages the power of technology and social media and networking, to maximize your business potential.

Actively and proactively communicates with and motivates her team.

Helps her front-line (those she personally sponsored) train their downlines.

Balances her own business, with the needs of her team.

When you consider joining a direct sales company, take the time to interview your potential mentor. Don’t assume that because you are related to or friends with your mentor, that she will be a good business leader for you. Ask thoughtful questions on the mentor’s philosophy of leadership, her understanding of the direct sales industry, how frequently she communicates with her team, how or if she leverages the power of technology to help motivate, inspire and coach her team, how actively she follows-up on communications, and if her own goals align with yours. If you want to grow a team but your prospective mentor is only doing her business for part-time fun, she may not be the best fit for your goals.

Your mentor will earn a commission on her downline – meaning, anything you or your future team sells. She should be working for you and helping you grow your business, to earn that commission. If you are not confident that your mentor can provide you everything you need to maximize your own earning potential, keep looking. Don’t let a personal relationship get in the way of your future success.

Interested in direct sales? Feel free to contact me. Let me tell you all about my leadership philosophy and my passion for social media strategies! Because on my TEAM, {T}ogether {E}veryone {A}chieves {M}ore!